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Stop with this no college crap. Here's the facts: if you have no work experience and no college education, you're not even going to get a phone interview with

by NateDad 14y ago

Stop with this no college crap. Here's the facts: if you have no work experience and no college education, you're not even going to get a phone interview with any software company. You're just not. None of the companies I've worked for (from tiny startups to 1000+ person software companies) would look twice at your resume. They wouldn't even get so far as printing it out so they could throw it away. You are not Mark Zuckerberg. You are not Bill Gates. Don't try to pretend you are. If you're incredibly lucky, you'll get a job as an unpaid intern at a medical device company writing Delphi for their internal systems. You may be able to work your way up from there... but it'll suck. College was FUN. I learned a lot there. I wouldn't skip it for the world. Hell, for much of my 20's I wished I could go back to college to do it some more. I went to a private, expensive technical school, and graduated with, yes, $30,000 in debt. If you're as smart as you think you are, you can get grants and scholarships to reduce the cost of college. And then you can pay it off a few hundred dollars a month like everyone else does... and you'll laugh, because a few hundred dollars a month isn't that bad when you're getting paid $70k+ I promise you, you'll learn a lot in college. You'll have fun. Don't listen to all the statistics about not being able to get a job or pay off loans... those are general statistics for all graduates that include all the philosophy and English and history of music majors. You'll be graduating with SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE that can be directly applied to the JOB that you get because you are QUALIFIED, and because software companies troll job fairs at technical colleges looking for bright stars like you that will work their butts off for half the price of the old neckbeards with kids that want to go home at 5pm. GO TO COLLEGE. IT'S AWESOME.

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quesera 14y ago
Working within the system is always the easiest approach, but it produces very predictable results. Some people don't get the same affirmation from following the expected path. There are very strong arguments for and against college. The right choice depends on the temperament of the person. Unfortunately that person is rarely equipped with all of the information/maturity to make a good choice for themselves. This is a failing of parents and schools, who themselves generally don't know any better. But the crux of the argument is that the default choice is very very often the (or a) bad one. It's an important conversation to have. Edit: your "here's the facts" line is overemphasized, and demonstrably incorrect.
Arelius 14y ago
Frankly, at most of the places I've worked at, you wouldn't get a phone interview with no experience, regardless of education.
avenger123 14y ago
I agree for the average person this is good advice. I just don't think anyone needs to go to a college where they are going to have $60K-$120K tuition over the span of their degree. If you can't pay for most of the tuition in cash, then, I'm sorry, you can't afford it. And, no, being able to take out a student loan for the amount, does not mean that you can afford it. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Go to college, find a local one that is reasonable in price. You should be able to go to a college and only have total tuition in the $20k-40k range. That's much more manageable than the $100k student loan.
RobotCaleb 14y ago
I'm definitely an outlier, but, aside from a scuba class, I have zero college and zero debt and make more than 3x the debt you incurred by attending your technical school and I love my job. I don't doubt college was fun, nor would I say it's not useful. I wouldn't even discourage someone from going. I also definitely wouldn't clamor on about "you're not even going to get a phone interview with any software company." It does happen. In other words, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes".

by NateDad 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

quesera 14y ago

Working within the system is always the easiest approach, but it produces very predictable results. Some people don't get the same affirmation from following the expected path. There are very strong arguments for and against college. The right choice depends on the temperament of the person. Unfortunately that person is rarely equipped with all of the information/maturity to make a good choice for themselves. This is a failing of parents and schools, who themselves generally don't know any better. But the crux of the argument is that the default choice is very very often the (or a) bad one. It's an important conversation to have. Edit: your "here's the facts" line is overemphasized, and demonstrably incorrect.

Arelius 14y ago

Frankly, at most of the places I've worked at, you wouldn't get a phone interview with no experience, regardless of education.

avenger123 14y ago

I agree for the average person this is good advice. I just don't think anyone needs to go to a college where they are going to have $60K-$120K tuition over the span of their degree. If you can't pay for most of the tuition in cash, then, I'm sorry, you can't afford it. And, no, being able to take out a student loan for the amount, does not mean that you can afford it. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Go to college, find a local one that is reasonable in price. You should be able to go to a college and only have total tuition in the $20k-40k range. That's much more manageable than the $100k student loan.

RobotCaleb 14y ago

I'm definitely an outlier, but, aside from a scuba class, I have zero college and zero debt and make more than 3x the debt you incurred by attending your technical school and I love my job. I don't doubt college was fun, nor would I say it's not useful. I wouldn't even discourage someone from going. I also definitely wouldn't clamor on about "you're not even going to get a phone interview with any software company." It does happen. In other words, "Only a Sith deals in absolutes".